In the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, Rishi Sunak has pushed back on green initiatives that hard-pressed voters cannot afford.
He pushed back the ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years, to 2035, and extended the phase-out of new gas boilers by nine years.
The Prime Minister pledged to be “honest” in revising the path to net zero emissions by 2050, insisting that the UK was already ahead of other countries and could not impose “unacceptable costs” on the public.
“The risk here for those of us who care about reaching net zero, as I do, is simple – if we continue down this path, we risk losing the consent of the British people,” Mr Sunak said in a speech at Downing Street yesterday.
“And the resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies but against the wider mission itself, meaning we might never achieve our goal. That’s why we have to do things differently.”
According to Mr Sunak, the green shake-up will save the average household up to £15,000 every year.
Within the Tory Party, his widely anticipated announcements were both welcomed and criticised.